Home Weather Stations - Are They Worth It?

BaeneyR

Last week my third weather station in two years stopped working fully due to the external transmitter failing.

I have bought cheaper products. Perhaps that's the problem? They have been housed under a generous overhang that provides shade and shields from rain.

Can anyone recommend a model / brand that has worked for them for over three years? Simpler devices preferred.

I find most of the products on the market overly laden with features. All I want is to be able to glance at an internal screen that tells the temperature and humidity inside and the temperature outside.

If I want to check the wind I can look at tree branches and the bird bath serves as a rough and ready rain gauge.My house is already awash with clocks, alarms and calendars. If I want daily max and min temperatures I will catch a broadcast weather report or go online. Nor do we need phases of the moon (any lunacy here is due to other factors), horoscopes or speak your weight.

EssexExile

I've never owned one, I thought about it last year but read so many reports of them not surviving the British weather that I changed my mind. A chap on another forum has had Oregon Scientific & Maplin at various price points but none have lasted more than a year or so.

agrinnall

I'd recommend Oregon Scientific. The one I have myself I've been using for (at a guess) at least 8 years, although in the last year it's stopped picking up the signal from the outside sensor so I probably need a new one. The one I bought for my mum 3 years ago is still going strong. If I had one that stopped working after a year I'd have taken it back (to John Lewis, which is where I buy them).

Strider590

I've had 2 different ones and both had the same issue, external sensor failure. But it was weird, they were shorting the batteries out, so they'd run down overnight, sometimes they'd run for months, sometimes weeks and sometimes a few days.

I tried rechargeable batteries, by attaching a solar panel to keep them charged, they'd work for a random time, then not at all, then a week later they'd come back to life, then die again.

All I can conclude is that the sensors were poorly designed.


I wouldn't buy another one.

[Deleted User]

BaeneyR wrote: »

They have been housed under a generous overhang that provides shade and shields from rain.

There isn't much point in having an instrument to measure wind speed and direction if you're going to mount it somewhere where the wind gets deflected by the walls of the house.

Oblivion

I bought this in April 2012 and it's still working perfectly. I used 'No Nails' adhesive to fix the outside sensor to a covered walkway outside my window so that it gets plenty of air to sample but no direct sun or rain.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0046LCETE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

smudger1964

I got this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/black-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-centre-n96gy

I got it when it was on offer probably about 4 years ago has worked fine no problems with it..it is expensive at the moment but they do put it on offer from time to time

Tigsteroonie

I'm on my second one from Maplin, yes the sensor gave up transmitting on the first. I've found that the tx range isn't brilliant on the second, or something in this house interferes, so the display lives in our conservatory - not very useful for easy reading! Last week we were laughing at a robin who alighted on one of the arms of the anemometer - round and round he went ...

BaeneyR

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

Loved the idea of the robin going for a spin.

Having checked out reviews for recommended products, these too have issues for at least a minority of users. Transmission does seem to be a common bug.

One person also mentioned a useless manual, which I recall was true of two of the models I wasted money on. One, better described as a page, came with very limited information, part of which was contradicted by a UK helpline. The other was written by a person struggling with English and possibly no experience in any language of setting out technical information.

I will only consider buying a model that comes with a three year warranty. Is anyone aware of a company that has such faith in its weather stations?

gjchester

smudger1964 wrote: »

I got this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/black-usb-wireless-touchscreen-weather-centre-n96gy

I got it when it was on offer probably about 4 years ago has worked fine no problems with it..it is expensive at the moment but they do put it on offer from time to time

I have the same one, its been outside three years or so and as a plug I use Cumulus by Sanday Soft to get the data online to my web site and upload to Weather Underground too.

I've had no major problems, you have to replace the batteries every so often in the transmitter(usually yearly) and the controller locks up every so often and stops sending data to the internet, you take the batteries out then re-insert them and its fine.

How accurate it is depends how well you position the sensor but seems to be pretty accurate for me.

Gloomendoom

I've got one I bought in Aldi in 2006 or 2007. It's still gong strong. So are the external transmitters.